Agnes Mensah

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Agnes Mensah by Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN) in Ghana. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 7 months of this loan, Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Agnes is married to a fisherman, and together they have three children. Their oldest son is eleven years old, and he lives with Agnes’ sister in the western part of Ghana. Agnes’ other two children live with she and her husband in their coastal fishing town.

Agnes is a fish vendor and with this last loan from Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN), she bought fish from the local fishermen to smoke and sell. Agnes’ business is slow right now due to a sluggish market. The local economy depends heavily on the fishing industry, and the catch in the past several months has been very low. This means that less money is circulating in the community, and makes business tough for all the vendors in the area. Agnes tells me that she makes a profit only sometimes, but when she does, she reinvests her money into the business, and sometimes helps to pay her mother’s expenses. She is fortunate that her husband makes enough money to pay for all the household expenses and the children’s education, leaving Agnes to concentrate on her business financially.

Agnes’ father gave her some land before he passed away, and Agnes dreams of building a home on this land. She would love her son to come back home to live, but knows that he is better off at her sister’s home, where his Aunt provides better for him than Agnes can. She told me how much she misses this son, and looks forward to his visits on his vacations from school. Often, microloans in themselves cannot make a significant change in someone’s life, and larger forces win out temporarily in the battle to reduce poverty. For now, Agnes is struggling, and all of us at Kiva and CRAN hold the hope that her circumstances will change for the better soon.

About Christian Rural Aid Network:

Christian Rural Aid Network is a non-governmental, rural development organization established in 1993 with the aim of promoting an improvement in the quality of life and the socio-economic development of the rural poor in Ghana. Based in Cape Coast and operating in three regions and seven different districts, CRAN’s work is based on the values of Christian motivation and obligation towards the development of the individual as a whole, employing and promoting “demand-led” or “self-help” strategies for community development and rural poverty reduction. CRAN’s mission is to “work towards the improvement in the quality of life of the rural poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalized populations and communities in a holistic fashion (physically, socially, economically and spiritually), with emphasis on the right of children to quality formal education, in addition to the economic and social empowerment of women in a professional and qualitative manner”. To learn more about CRAN, click here. To browse through profiles of recent CRAN loan applicants and to make a loan to another worthy CRAN loan client, click here.

Agnes lives with her three children and her husband in their own small house. Two of her children are going to school, the third one is just a baby. Her husband is a fisherman.

She sells smoked fish in the streets of Elmina. This business is very widespread in Elmina, everything depends heavily on the fishing industry. So there are many other people, she is in competition with. From May until July, it is very difficult to get fish. This time is called ‘lane-season’. That is one reason, why Agnes decided to take a microloan from the Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN). She uses the loan to buy more stock.

That helped Agnes to increase her income. Now she is able to buy fish and equipment, like firewood, without credit and interests.

Agnes hopes to be able to buy a car for her family, some day. She thanks every lender very much, for giving her the chance to improve her business, which helps her to fulfill her dreams step by step.

About Christian Rural Aid Network:

Christian Rural Aid Network is a non-governmental, rural development organization established in 1993 with the aim of promoting an improvement in the quality of life and the socio-economic development of the rural poor in Ghana. Based in Cape Coast and operating in three regions and seven different districts, CRAN’s work is based on the values of Christian motivation and obligation towards the development of the individual as a whole, employing and promoting “demand-led” or “self-help” strategies for community development and rural poverty reduction. CRAN’s mission is to “work towards the improvement in the quality of life of the rural poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalized populations and communities in a holistic fashion (physically, socially, economically and spiritually), with emphasis on the right of children to quality formal education, in addition to the economic and social empowerment of women in a professional and qualitative manner”. To learn more about CRAN, click here. To browse through profiles of recent CRAN loan applicants and to make a loan to another worthy CRAN loan client, click here.